This Alabama mom is revolutionizing education for those with autism

On an uncharacteristically cold October day, Lindy Wood welcomes us to Westonwood Ranch in Walton County, Florida. In a short-sleeve polo, well-worn jeans, and cowboy boots, the mom of four apologizes for the rain while leading us to a covered structure where we can chat.

It’s just a few weeks after Hurricane Michael rocked the Florida Panhandle, but the positivity radiating from Wood makes it impossible to tell that not too long ago she was holed up waiting and watching as the strongest storm to hit the Panhandle in its history tore through town. At stake was, of course, the safety of her family, friends, and community. But also, the progress she’d already made on Westonwood Ranch, the 40-acre property she and her family bought in 2014 to turn into a pre-planned, farm-based learning program for individuals with autism.

Sitting under the soon-to-be equine stables —with an aquaponic greenhouse a couple hundred yards away and animal pens holding alpacas, pigs, and bunnies sprinkled throughout the property—it’s a miracle that Wood had time to meet with us, much less set up display tables with cardboard renderings of the ranch or think to set out water bottles for us. But of course, Wood never had much time to dawdle in tragedy or stop for sorrow. If ever the title “supermom” were to be awarded, it’d go to Wood. Superwoman would be just as accurate.

FORMATIVE EXPERIENCE

Nine years ago, Wood, her husband Jason, and their two children were living what she describes as a “picture-perfect life.” The high school sweethearts had planted roots on a farm in their hometown of Livingston, Alabama. They expected it to be their forever home.

“I think when you’re planning your life, you think it’s all a fairytale,” Wood says. “You always see families that have special-needs kids, and you think in the back of your mind, ‘That’s something that happens to someone else, not us.’”

Wood became that “someone else” just a few years later when her third child, Weston, was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of 2. Weston was non-verbal and self-injurious, and Wood, a psychiatric nurse practitioner by trade, was entirely overwhelmed. Her initial panic at Weston’s diagnosis was exacerbated by finding out she was pregnant with her fourth child around the same time.

“I felt like someone had just ripped my heart out,” she remembers. “I don’t want to compare it to a death, but you do grieve. It’s like your child’s whole life flashes before your eyes. You think he probably won’t play little league, he won’t go to prom, he won’t have a girlfriend, he’s not going to have a job. All of that flashes before you.”

In the wake of hearing the gut-wrenching news, Wood went into go-mode, quitting her job to research every possibility for speech therapy, occupational therapy, and behavioral therapy that could help Weston. What she immediately discovered was the immense lack of comprehensive programs for those affected by autism—especially in rural Alabama. Eventually, Wood’s search led her to Mitchell’s Place in Birmingham, where Weston could get the one-on-one ABA (applied behavioral analysis) therapy he needed. With no time for self-pity, Wood packed up her life (including her four-week-old baby) and moved to Birmingham. For the next two years, Wood and her two youngest children lived in Birmingham during the week, reuniting with the other half of their family in Livingston on the weekends. The decision to split up their family was difficult but necessary at the time, yet Wood knew it wasn’t a permanent solution. Children age out of Mitchell’s Place after age 7, and living in two places at once was taking its toll on the entire family.

Wood began looking for other options, and after touring Emerald Coast Autism Center in Niceville, Florida, she and Jason made the heart-breaking decision to leave behind their “forever home” in Livingston and move their family to the coast.

“We were so torn up about having to leave our home behind and uprooting our family,” Wood says. “We just felt really lost.”

It was in that dark period, just a week before the big move, that Wood had an experience that changed her perspective forever. She had lunch with a fellow mother of a child with autism—only this child, named Hallie, was now 22 and had aged out of the public-school system. Her mom, Fran, had to quit her job because there was nowhere else for Hallie to go.

“In that moment—and it was a very distinct moment—my energy and my mind and my heart kind of shifted from what I was caught up in immediately with Weston, and I thought that this fundamentally wasn’t right,” Wood says.

Wood decided her impact could go far beyond helping just her son—she wanted to help people like Weston everywhere. And she wanted that help to last well beyond the age of 7, or 13, or even 22. She wanted a permanent solution to the problem of individuals with autism being left behind.

“At the end of the day, everyone wants an independent life and to feel like they’re productive and giving back,” she says. “But basically, our society slams the door in their face just by the nature of how we educate this population.”

OPENING DOORS

With all that in mind, the Wood family moved to the Florida Panhandle and Weston began attending Emerald Coast Autism Center (ECAC). At the same time, they purchased the land that would become Westonwood Ranch and began fleshing out plans for a system of replicable self-sustaining business enterprises run by adolescents and young adults with autism. Wood also worked closely with ECAC to develop an ABA-based curriculum for Westonwood that focuses largely on skill acquisition. The vision for Westonwood was a working ranch, complete with a 4,500-square-foot vocational training center, a commercial aquaponic greenhouse, covered equine arena and stables, technology and fitness centers, and a sensory room. Its main demographic would be aged 14 and older; an eventual goal is also to provide on-site, semi-independent housing for older program members.

“The whole idea behind Westonwood Ranch is that I didn’t want to be put in a box,” Wood says.

Everything at Westonwood is done with purpose, and all endeavors on the ranch are connected to one another. For example, Wood chose aquaponic farming because it’s a self-sustaining ecosystem that provides multiple avenues for growth and exploration. Students can take part in the highly predictable, cyclic farming, but they also can learn to process, market, and sell the harvested organic produce. In the commercial kitchen, students hone cooking skills to produce, package, and sell a signature pesto using basil from the greenhouse.

Another huge part of the milieu at Westonwood is the ranch’s emphasis on animal therapy. Growing up with weekend access to the family farm in Livingston, Weston formed a special bond with one of the family’s horses, Razzie, who is now one of the therapy horses at Westonwood.

“We realized that he could be all over the place, but when we put him bareback on horseback and he could feel those vibrations from the horse, he was calm for hours after,” Wood says. “Horses are pack animals, and they can sense the vulnerable and weak, so they pair with those individuals naturally. Seeing this population interact with them is beautiful.”

Outside of therapy, students will be able to learn about animal husbandry, stable operations, and proper animal care from the ranch’s dozens of other rescue animals, including pigs Frank and Pumba, an adorably ugly alpaca, and a bundle of bunnies. There’s a long list of experiences that individuals with autism typically miss out on, but Wood is working to change that by offering after-school classes for a wide range of ages in art and dance. She also plans to host an inclusive summer day camp for both children with and without special needs. All in all, Westonwood will be able to accommodate 140 full-time program participants.

GARNERING SUPPORT

If you’re thinking this sounds like a lot to put together for one family—even one led by the incredible force that is Lindy Wood—you’d be right. Luckily for the Woods, they’ve had tremendous support from the surrounding community. The initial influx of donations from the silent capital campaign in October of 2017 shocked Wood. And from there, she says, the gifts just kept coming.

“I stand back sometimes, and I’m amazed because everyone’s generosity fast-tracked this, and it’s not anything I did,” she says. “There are days when Weston doesn’t sleep and he self-injures, and I’m like ‘I can barely take a shower, why am I trying to put this together?’ And when I have those days, I swear it’s like a beautiful gift would get put right back in our path.”

One of those gifts came when Westonwood was selected as a benefiting charity of Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation (DCWAF), a nonprofit that plans biannual wine-focused events that fully benefit a number of children’s charities. To date, the 14-year-old organization has donated more than $18 million to Northwest Florida charities through its spring Destin Charity Wine Auction and fall Harvest Wine & Food Festival. DCWAF President John Russell says the decision to welcome Westonwood as one of its benefiting charities was an obvious one.

“All of us at Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation are in awe of the drive and personal commitment of Lindy and Jason Wood to create a sustainable therapeutic model to improve the lives and vocational skills of young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder,” Russell says. “The Woods have developed an extraordinary solution that could only come out of the love of parents with a child with [autism spectrum disorder].”

As Wood puts it, a lot has happened by meeting the “right people on the right path.” Another example: Wood met with an architect from Blue Mountain Beach to talk about potential designs for the ranch’s vocational training center. After explaining the mission behind Westonwood, the architect offered to do the project pro bono. As it turns out, his 14-year-old son also is affected by autism.

Still, much of the community’s willingness to offer support can be attributed to Wood’s incredible passion and drive to make the world a better place for her son—and for so many others like him.

“We want to create this movement where we stop pigeonholing these kids and saying all they’re capable of doing is bagging groceries or picking up trash,” she says. “It breaks my heart because I can see these kids have so many unique talents, but they’re just not allowed the chance to explore and find out what they excel at.”

Westonwood also is a chance for Wood to give herself—and Hallie’s mom and every other parent who has a child affected by autism—peace of mind in knowing that their child will have the opportunity to live a meaningful life.

“I have a 16-year-old son, too, and with him, I feel like my parenting stops with college,” Wood says. “I’ve given him all these tools, and then he kind of flies away. But with Weston, I feel that heaviness on my heart that it’s not going to be easy for him to fly away. He’s going to need a lot more. I want Westonwood Ranch to offer that.”